Hackintosher goes titsup

Updated It's official: the Florida-based Hackingtosher that Apple's legal team has been hacking at for over a year has finally thrown in the towel.

"We respect the robe," Psystar lawyer Eugene Action told Dow Jones Newswires, referring presumably to US District Court Judge William Alsup, who issued a ruling earlier this week that prohibited the company from selling both copies of Mac OS X and Psystar's Rebel EFI utility, which allows users to install their own copies of that operating system on non-Apple machines.

What a long, strange trip it's been.

The saga began early last year when Psystar began selling its Open Computer system, which with the help of an Extensible Firmware Interface emulator allowed its customers to install Mac OS X on the Hackintosher's Hackintoshes.

That move not only prompted a legal challenge from Apple, but also pissed off the developer of the emulator utility, EFI V8, who blogged "They forgot to mention author of emulator, so it's [sic] looks like they made EFI V8. So, this is violation of my authorship rights on PC EFI V8."

That contentious beginning was a harbinger of things to come for Psystar.

The legal wrangling has been long and arduous. Psystar fought back with a countersuit - which Alsup soon threw out. Then, after court-mandated Alternative Dispute Resolution mediation failed to bring an end to the matter, Apple increased the heat by adding DMCA-violation allegations to their complaint.

As mentioned above, the death blow came when Alsup issued his injunction. Now Psystar is no more. Don't even try to access Psystar.com - it has disappeared into the digital darkness.

Psystar's attorney told Dow Jones Newswires that the company's president Rudy Pedraza will be "shutting things down immediately. They will not be in business."

At one point earlier this year, Psystar's community blog said that the company was preparing to go into trial against Apple with "guns blazin'.

But Psystar is the one who's now shot down, crashed, and burned. ®

Update

They're baaaack... As of Saturday morning, Psystar.com was back online, advertising the very Rebel EFI loader that it was supposedly enjoined from selling by Judge Alsups' decision earlier in the week - although the loader is listed as being "Out of stock."

In addition, Computerworld has reported that a second Psystar lawyer, K.A.D. Camara, has told them: "Regrettably, Mr. Action was misquoted in an early story that seems to have been picked up elsewhere. Psystar does not intend to shut down permanently."

Whether you choose to believe that Psystar's continued existence is a triumph of David over Goliath, continued hubris by EULA-skirting miscreants, or a dark plot by unnamed deep-pockets puppeteers is up to you. As for us, The Reg tires - but we'll try to get to the bottom of this whole sorry, sordid saga. Sigh...